Okay 2020. You’ve thrown our worlds upside down and forced us to embrace seriously stressful situations like working from home alongside our partners, and gasp, our school aged kids.
Don’t let this 2020 thing get you down. It’s given you a gift – more control over your own life.
No boss breathing down your neck. No teacher roaming the hallways ready to hand out tardy slips.
You can work from wherever you please. Welcome to blissful freedom!
The Outer Banks is perfect for remote working
As a family living the location independent lifestyle for seven years, we can recommend the Outer Banks in North Carolina as the perfect place to work remotely.
It’s slow and steady and won’t distract you too much with endless tourist attractions and flashing neon lights.
It offers you opportunity to explore and have fun at a slow and relaxed pace, which means it offers you the ability to work and travel at the same time, whether that means you are doing it as a couple, or with kids.
There are plenty of vacation rentals in the Outer Banks, which will give you the home comforts you need for a remote working/learning environment and delicious, local food is always nearby to save you cooking, if you don’t want to.
And its proximity to Raleigh means you don’t have the hassle of extended travel time adding another exhausting layer to what you’re now being asked to do.
Here are a few simple tips to embrace remote learning, working (and fun travel) in the Outer Banks.
The early bird catches the worm
Getting up early is the best way for you to get your work done before the children wake and the madness sets in.
The OBX has you covered.
It will put on an incredible show each morning that will have you leaping out of bed before the alarm with giddy excitement.
It’s called sunrise over the beach and they are some of the prettiest I’ve seen in the world (we’ve traveled to over 50 countries).
Think … glass like water, pastel pink painted sky, and pods of dolphins swimming by and leaping out of the water.
Get your morning exercise in with a walk, jog, or paddle while you’re out there. Multitasking is essential for those juggling work, life, and school.
The sunrise will inspire you so much, you’ll be ready for a few hours of work after it.
Flexibility is key
What we’ve learned from homeschooling while traveling and running a successful travel blog, is flexibility is key.
Throw out the idea of a set workday and set work hours.
Break it down into blocks instead. You maneuver the blocks around depending on what is happening in the outside world and layer them as much as you can (see next tip).
It’s all about balance. Your kids won’t need to spend 6 hours at school each day. They learn so quickly with one on one and without the endless classroom distractions. That gives you more time for fun.
Yes. Can you believe it? Fun. On a school and workday.
It’s balance the Outer Banks way.
Maneuver your work time around whatever fun things to do in the OBX are happening.
Combine life experiences with learning
One way our girls thrive so much with their homeschooling WITHOUT doing endless hours of book work is combing life experiences and hands on interaction with learning.
As the Outer Banks is the home of many firsts, it’s easy to do this: Home of first flight, first national seashore, and first English colony at Roanoke. There are many attractions and experiences to help you learn from this.
Our visit to the Kitty Hawk hang-gliding school was timed perfectly with our youngest daughter’s unit of work on energy.
I could have hugged our trainer, Micah when unpromoted by me he began talking of potential and kinetic energy.
As Savannah went running and launched herself flying off the sand dune she completely understood the scientific concept.
She also understood quite clearly what happens when she moved her arms a little too quickly down and she lost the wind force and fell crashing to the ground – unhurt.
She now had a story to share on her online classroom meeting rooms – the day I survived a flight crash! Turn that into a first-hand narrative, and you’re checking off those curriculum boxes, killing the layering technique and making learning valuable and meaningful.
Disconnect to reconnect
There are so many things to do in the Outer Banks that gives you and your family a much needed chance to disconnect to reconnect with Mother Nature, simplicity and each other: Surfing lessons, fishing chasing wild horses, or just playing round on a body board at the beach.
Outdoor activities like this can also account for your exercise for the day – remember layer your priorities or blocks! This daily break will be so impactful, it will restore your energy for a couple more hours of work in the afternoon.
Plus, you want to wear the kids out, so you have a bit of quiet time in the evening to soak up those sunsets over the sound. Because they are just as good as the sunrises. There are very few places in the world that offer you the best of these worlds!
One last survival tip
Let’s be honest: you’re going to need quite a large supply of alcohol nearby to help your nerves handle the constant screeching like a flock of parrots, “Moooooooom, I don’t know how to do this,” your partners incredibly loud conference calls, in between you breaking up yet another fight between your children and running out of nose-to-the-wall space.
Easy. Slip out the door to the nearest Tiki Bar on the pier.
Our personal favorite is Fish Heads Grill on the Outer Banks Pier.
With over 40 craft brews to choose from and 15 cent shrimp every happy evening from 4-6, this will have you shouting, “Today was the best workday ever! I’m going to set that alarm early so I can do it all over again tomorrow.”
Bio: Caroline Makepeace, is co-founder of one of the world’s largest family travel blogs, ytravelblog.com with her husband Craig.
Originally from Australia, the Makepeace's now live in Raleigh. NC and continue to explore the world in-depth with their two daughters. They love to help people travel more and create better memories, especially with their kids! You can follow their latest adventures on YouTube and Instagram, and their new site, ThisisRaleigh.com
